What is VPN?

Learn all about what VPNs are (and aren’t) good for, and how they can keep you safe online.

What is a VPN?

Short for Virtual Private Network, VPN is a tool used to make your connection private on a public network. Public and untrusted Wi-Fi networks are unsafe, but a VPN provides a layer of protection between your device and the internet at large.

What’s wrong with public networks?

The problem with public networks is that you don’t know the owner or the other people using the network.

When you use a public hotspot, like the free Wi-Fi in a hotel or coffee shop, you broadcast your activity to everyone else on the network. So, what if someone else decides to listen in? Tools like Firesheep and Wireshark make it easy to intercept your leaky data, and someone may look to exploit it for personal gain.

You also have to trust that the network you’re using won’t alter your data. Alas, even some companies that provide broadband and LTE access have been caught red-handed secretly tracking customer traffic.

The bottom line: it’s hard to know if public and unfamiliar networks can be trusted. Encrypt.me can help you stay safe — so keep it with you wherever you go.

Do VPNs slow down my connection?

It can, but the answer is often: it depends. There are a lot of variables that determine your VPN’s performance: encryption level, distance, connection strength.

When you use a VPN, your data travels through new intermediate “hops” on the network — and each of those steps takes time. Depending on where in the world you are, and the location of your VPN’s servers, you may see performance impacts to your connection’s speed.

Encrypt.me goes to great lengths to minimize the impact of securing your connection. But know that it’s impossible to avoid performance impact altogether.

Does a VPN make me anonymous when I’m online?

True online anonymity is a very difficult promise to fulfill. It means that it is impossible for someone to uncover your true identity. While a VPN will make it difficult to determine your identity online, it doesn’t even come close to making it impossible.

Under the hood, Encrypt.me changes something called your “IP address.” An IP address is a little like a phone number. Some people think that if they change their IP that they’re untraceable, but this isn’t true. Just as there are ways to figure out who made a phone call with a concealed number, there are ways to identify you that have nothing to do with your IP address.

Can VPNs make it “look like” I’m in another country?

Maybe — Encrypt.me is not designed to help with this, though. Our one and only mission is to keep you safe on untrusted networks.

While a VPN can route your data through servers in other countries, that doesn’t mean websites will believe you’re in one of these countries.

Under the hood, when you secure your connection with Encrypt.me, you get a new “IP address.” Now, IP addresses have nothing whatsoever to do with your location. But long ago, some clever people realized that you could guess where someone was based on their IP address. Even today, many websites do try to make this guess. Sometimes they get it right; sometimes they don’t.

In the past few years, we’ve noticed a trend moving away from using IP addresses for location. These days, our mobile and desktop devices have location technologies like GPS already built-in. Apps and websites can simply ask for our actual location and, assuming we give them permission, they don’t have to guess where we are.

We actually believe that we’re approaching the point where the only services that are fooled by VPNs are the ones that are willing to be.

Are there other trade-offs to using a VPN service?

Yes.

When you secure your connection to the internet with a VPN, you transfer data through that VPN’s servers. If your data is already encrypted (think: your bank) then it looks encrypted to your VPN provider, too. But if your data is not encrypted by default (think: news, video streaming, online shopping), then it’s your VPN’s job to encrypt it for you.

This means, of course, that the VPN servers get priority access to your unencrypted data. In other words, you need to trust that your VPN provider is, well, trustworthy.

At Encrypt.me, we believe that transparency and reliability are the keys to customer confidence. We hope that we’ve provided enough information on our website for you to decide that you can trust us.